A star-spangled July for Twin Cities home sales

July was a star-spangled month for Twin Cities home sales. Buyers gobbled up more homes during July than in any one month in seven years. And with upper-bracket sales on the move, foreclosures on the decline and bidding wars aplenty, sale prices marched closer to pre-crash levels.

During July there were about 5,700 closings in the 13-county metro area, almost 19-percent higher than last year and the most since June 2006, according to a monthly report from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors. The median price of those closings was almost $210,000, a nearly 17 percent increase compared with last year. And sales outpaced new listings, causing the number of active listings on the market to fall 12.5 percent to 15,758.

Stay tuned for more updates later in the day, and story in the Tuesday paper.

Just Listed brings you the latest news and information from the Twin Cities-area commercial and residential real estate market and beyond from veteran reporters Jim Buchta and Kristen Leigh Painter.